But does it really rank as one of the all-time great war movies? And what did you think of Harry Styles’ acting? Here’s a chance to give your verdict on the film’s key talking points.

The horror, the horror

Nolan’s film may eschew the theatrical gore of Oliver Stone’s and Francis Ford Coppola’s war movies, but there is no doubt that Dunkirk is a gruelling and disorienting experience. Regular time jumps and narrative overlaps do little to help us retrieve our bearings, while the dissonant minimalism of Hans Zimmer’s score, combined with the constant bombshells and gunfire, adds to the sense of harrowed discombobulation.

Dunkirk review – Christopher Nolan's apocalyptic war epic is his best film so far

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The intensity of some scenes almost beggars belief. Relief disintegrates into renewed terror as the warm and unexpected comfort of bread and jam in a ship’s hold – at last, an escape from those icy-still, deathly beaches – is instantly transformed by Luftwaffe bombs into a whirling purgatory of drowning, clawing, trapped soldiers, struggling against the sea and each other for a breath of air.

Still, would you agree that when the strings sweep in and Kenneth Branagh’s Commander Bolton spots the thousands of tiny British boats on the horizon, it feels like a rare moment in Hollywood cinema when the dramatic relief has truly been earned?

The patriotic fervour

It’s impossible to deny the post-Brexit vote symbolism of Dunkirk, with its depiction of British withdrawal from dangerous foreign territory to a green and pleasant Blighty. But those who paint Nolan’s remarkable film with broad, red white and blue brushstrokes might be rather missing the point. From our current vantage point, this most realistic rendering of the horrors of war should surely serve as a reminder that the spirit of democracy and international cooperation must be retained if we are to avoid a future where our young men are once again sent to die hopelessly on foreign soil.

At least, that’s how the movie left me feeling. But great cinema can inspire a multitude of readings. What’s your view?

Harry Styles and pop’s Hollywood invasion

Thankfully the former One Direction hunk’s appearance in Dunkirk is unlikely to be tagged Styles’ very own Ed Sheeran moment. There is so little dialogue in Nolan’s movie – almost all the British soldiers limited to a few terse lines – it is hard to analyse the singer’s potential as a future Hollywood superstar. Suffice to say that he does not irritate, does not seem out of place among a starry cast, and performed a limited role rather well – wouldn’t you agree?

With Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan has finally hit the heights of Kubrick

Dunkirk’s place in the pantheon of second world war movies

David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai, Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, John Sturges’ The Great Escape, Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen, Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron, Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Perhaps even Powell and Pressburger’s pathos-drenched 1946 masterpiece A Matter of Life and Death, or the German U-boat tale Das Boot. All have a case for being counted among the finest second world war films of all time. Where does Dunkirk stand?

Oscar hopes and historical accuracy

Might Dunkirk yet find itself encountering the eternal bugbear of the Oscars voter, historical accuracy? Nolan worked with Joshua Levine, author of the book Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk, to ensure his film bore the closest possible relation to the reality of Operation Dynamo, but some French writers have attacked the decision to show the French army only briefly. The Le Monde film critic Jacques Mandelbaum described Dunkirk’s plot as “purely British”, and its attitude to the French as “witheringly impolite” and “indifferent”.

Will Nolan finally get his Oscar? Are Branagh and Mark Rylance – though perhaps not Styles – shoo-ins for best supporting actor nods? Or might the movie’s very British focus lead to it being quietly ushered through the door marked “Bafta-only”?